Monday, September 15, 2008

Deadpool #1

You realise, of course, that I only bought this out of a misguided sense of responsibility. And before somebody asks, no, I don't regard it as an X-book, and no, I probably won't be writing about it again.

This is the Daniel Way Deadpool relaunch, and from what I can see, it's actually been getting some fairly positive reviews. That's nice. This isn't going to be one of them. But let's be fair: it's not bad. It's basically the same approach that Way took when he used Deadpool in Wolverine: Origins; Deadpool has multiple narrator voices in his head, which squabble with one another, and he has absurd hallucinations in mid-scene.

That storyline was drawn by Steve Dillon, and didn't really work; outright insanity isn't his thing. This time, we've got Paco Medina, who actually makes it work a little better. There are some cute comedy visuals in here, and yes, some of them did raise a smile. Medina's bright, vaguely cartoonish art seems better able to accommodate this stuff.

No, there's only one real problem with this issue, but it's a big one: there's really nothing to it. The story is thin to the point of gossamer. The Skrulls attack. Deadpool fights them for a bit. On the last page, he offers to switch sides. That's it. That's literally the whole thing. And come to think of it, Way's even managed to get a plot hole into that: if I'm following this right, Deadpool's plan was to hang around at a baseball stadium dressed as a mascot, and hope some Skrulls attacked it. Um... they've got a whole planet to choose from, haven't they?

So, sure, it's got some mildly amusing bits. And I wouldn't put it much higher than that. But there's nothing else to it - nothing. It's just Deadpool fighting some Skrulls for 22 pages. And can I just say, if there's one thing I'm bored to tears with, it's heroes randomly fighting Skrulls? I'm sick of it. Make it stop. Not that I blame Marvel for launching Deadpool as part of their big summer event - hey, if it works, make the most of it. But six months into the crossover, six godforsaken months, is there really anyone out there still thinking "Oh good, another story where some random heroes fight some random Skrulls"? This late in the day, you need a bit more to grab me.

But even if the Skrulls hadn't been hopelessly overexposed, this would still be a content-free non-story. It's not horrible - the comic timing's quite good, there are a few amusing moments - but it doesn't have the inventiveness to get by on comedy value alone.